Humberto Contreras, Mexico’s best figure skater of the last decade, world and international competitor, announced his retirement from competitive figure skating today. The President of the Mexican Figure Skating Federation, Ing. Jose Luis Aguilar Urzaiz, was officially informed prior to today’s announcement.

Contreras will now focus on giving back to new generations of skaters through coaching, where he will draw from his expertise gained through years of competing at the world level.

In his public announcement he said, “Today I’m officially announcing my retirement from competitive figure skating. I would like to take this moment to express my gratitude to the many people who have helped me throughout my skating career.

First, I would like to thank my family immensely for their unwavering support for so many years. Without them, none of my success would have been possible.

I would also like to thank my coach Elvis Stojko for all of his support and for everything he has taught me to help me become the best skater I can be.

I would like to thank my choreographer Roselle Soussana-Doyle for all of her time and dedication in creating my programs. Her work reminds me of why I love this sport.

Thank you to my former coaches Rocio Salas, Julie Graham-Eavzan, Nicole Laurin, Wendy Boyle, Alejandro Chavez, Alexei Mouratov, Elena Loboda, Natalia Sorokina, Alla Piatova and Darin Carlton. They were all essential to my development as a skater and as a human being.

Thank you to the Mexican Skating Federation, and to the Jalisco and D.F. Figure Skating Associations for all of their support over the years.

And finally, thank you to all of my friends and fans around the world for being there and supporting me for my whole career.

For me it’s a dream come true to retire at this moment because I always wanted to retire as Mexican National Champion; and what an amazing experience it was to finish my career competing at the World Figure Skating Championships in Torino, Italy in March of 2010!

Today a very important chapter in my life is coming to a close. I will remain in the skating world as a coach and mentor to new generations of skaters, and I will continue to skate professionally in skating shows around the world. I will miss the competitions and the excitement, but I’m ready to share my dream with future passionate and talented figure skaters.”

Humberto Contreras has skated for 14 years and has been on the national team for 12 consecutive years, representing Mexico in 17 international events and 2 World championships. He reached the status of “Elite Athlete” by competing at international events and achieving certain required results. These results are shown on the following web pages:

Contreras competed 7 times at the highly prestigious Four Continents Figure Skating Championships where he competed against the best skaters in the world. His best international result was achieved in 2005, when he finished in 18th place at Four Continents.

Additionally, he represented Mexico in 2 World Championships: first in Moscow, Russia in March of 2005, where he finished 21st, and later Torino, Italy in March of 2010.

Contreras is a 4-time Senior National Champion of Mexico, having won the title in 2002, 2003, 2005 and 2009.

He also won gold at 2 Junior Olympics in the years 2000 and 2001. He obtained 26 medals at the national level (12 gold, 13 silver and 1 Bronze between 1997 and 2010).